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The Cleveland Museums of Art’s Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe is the best show I’ve seen at the museum since I started my near-weekly visits six years ago. As good as the show is, however, the theme–artists as eyewitnesses to history–is a stretch. The paintings are souvenirs of public events in (equally important)…

My painting medium consists of oil, essential oil (turpentine), copal varnish, and driers. I like my medium, and it’s suitable for everything painting-wise except a few corner cases. For the corner cases, I add a small amount of this or that, depending on the case. I like my medium, and I’m happy with it, but…

Goodbye, Old Holland, I’m done with you. In my Oil Paint Brand Reference, I rated the Old Holland (OH) brand as top; best in breed among high-end brands. Its dense pigmentation gives it unrivaled covering power and performance. Funny thing though, I noticed that lately there are no OH paints on my palette. Why? Price. Their…

It’s hard for me to understand this but until this week I never used Utrecht brand oils. I’m not sure why this is. I’ve visited their shops in NYC and Cleveland and ordered plenty of other things from them. True, I was disappointed with the easel I bought from them, but that was recent and doesn’t explain…

I placed a paint order on RGH’s website, and the agile boys at RGH promptly shipped two 250 ml jars of Paynes gray to me. Unfortunately, I’d ordered two 250 ml jars of flake white. I probably haven’t used more than 40ml of Payne’s gray in the past five years. I checked the RGH website. Sure…

I wrote before about some of my experiences with Lukas 1862 oils. I wanted some more time with the paints before completing my review. With these recent sessions, I’ve had my fill of Lukas oils. Typical for me, I set up the palette on Friday morning (first photo) and used it over the next two…

I used some of the Lukas 1862 oils I wrote about before. I’m still not ready to add the brand to my oil paint reference because I need more testing. In their marketing material, Lukas emphasizes the ‘smooth, buttery’ quality of their paint. Virtuality all low-end brands make this claim. I can attest that…

Along with Winsor Newton, Blue Ridge and RGH oils get a lot of use on my palette. The categories I use to rate manufacturers in my oil paint brand reference–low-end, mid-range, and high-end–are based on price and quality. While there is a lot of churn in the low-end category, most brands are student-grade and…